COLOMBIA
A Colombian radio journalist was killed while reporting live on a
cycling race when his car crashed on a sharp mountain bend. Alberto
Martinez, 50, was standing in the back of a convertible watching riders
compete in the Tour de Colombia when the vehicle hit a side barrier
before flipping over. Two other reporters in the car, a radio
technician and the driver were injured. AP
UKRAINE
Reporters Without Borders has criticised the severity of a suspended
three-year prison sentence against editor Vasyl Herus for publishing a
bogus electoral programme for Viktor Yushchenko (pictured) in November,
days ahead of the second round of presidential elections. Herus, editor
of weekly newspaper Sim Dniv, signed a contract with the Party of
Regions – supporters of Yushchenko’s opponent, Viktor Yanukovich – to
publish two articles as advertising editorials. Reporters Without
Borders
IRAN
A Tehran Appeals Court has rejected a bid by the family of
Canadian-Iranian photo-journalist Zahra Kazemi to reopen the case into
her death. Lawyers for Kazemi’s family had argued that the
54-year-old Montreal resident was murdered while in custody and that
details of her brutal death were covered up, but the Appellate Court
rejected the allegation. Judge Alizadeh said a lower court had already
ruled Kazemi’s death was unintentional. “This dismissal illustrates
once again that the Iranian justice system has neither the capacity nor
the will to confront the perpetrators of the brutal murder of Zahra
Kazemi,” said Marie- Christine Lilkoff, a spokesperson for Foreign
Affairs Canada. Legalbrief Today
PAKISTAN
The fugitive suspected of setting up the initial meeting between
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and his killers has been
arrested in a bus terminal. Pearl was abducted in January 2002 while he
was researching a story in the southern city of Karachi, and was later
beheaded. Hashim Qadeer, listed among Pakistan’s most-wanted men in
2003, was captured in the eastern city of Gujranwala after three days
of police surveillances. A Karachi court has convicted four Islamist
militants of Pearl’s killing. All have appealed. Pravda
PAKISTAN
Reporters Without Borders has condemned the harassment of Rashid
Channa, a senior reporter with the Dawn group’s Karachi daily The Star,
after he was held for more than 12 hours and accused of attempted
murder. A cleric called Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Chishtie claims that
Channa and several others stopped him in an alley on 23 July and
threatened to kill him. Channa says he does not know Chishtie.
Reporters Without Borders claims the arrest of Channa was almost
certainly politically motivated by his criticism of officials in the
Sindh province, including the chief minister. Reporters Without Borders
BANGLADESH
Militants of the outlawed Jihadi Party have threatened to kill
Munshi Abu Tayeb, Khulna bureau chief of the daily Dainik Lokshamaj,
published from Jessore town. A letter from someone identifying himself
as a member of the Khulna-based party threatened to kill Abu Tayeb by
bomb attack as was done in the case of journalists Manik Saha and
Humayun Kabir Balu. www.asiamedia.ucla.edu
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